T-Mobile MVNO PTel Mobile has increased the amount of high speed data included with its $40 plan from 250 to 500MB. After 500MB is consumed, unlimited data is available at the throttled speed of 128Kbps. PTel's high-speed data is HSPA+, which tops out at about 11Mbpsacailable. LTE is not available. The plan also includes unlimited domestic voice minutes, unlimited domestic MMS and unlimited domestic and international text messaging.

This increase finally makes PTel's $40 plan competitive with similarly priced plans from T-Mobile based Lycamobile, NET10, MetroPCS and Ultra Mobile which have long had a 500MB data allowance. However T-Mobile MVNOs Simple Mobile and Spot Mobile give you a full gigabyte for the same $40.

While PTel doesn't give you the most data for the money they are generally considered to have the best customer service of any of the T-Mobile based prepaid operators.

If you are considering switching to PTel there are a couple of promotional deals available:

1) New activations can get a free month of service. Purchase a phone, SIM and a 2-month activation pack for the $40 or $50 Unlimited Everything Plan from the PTel Website. At checkout enter the code WOOTPTHALF to get a $40 or $50 discount, which makes the 2nd month of the pack free.

2) If you are porting a number from a non T-Mobile based operator you can get another free month of service for porting your number to PTel (offer details). If you are porting, the two offers can be combined to get two months of free service.

I have had Ptel service for over 3 years and always get good service. Issues are fixed on the first try. US based staff, and well trained. Much better support than Lycamobile or Spot. Do you have contrary "facts" to share, or was that just a theoretical criticism you raised?

That's anecdotal, of course, and not necessarily an indication of the average customer's experience. Since PTel switched to GSM, the reports of problems and subpar CS seem to have grown on that other web site devoted to discussing mobile phones and service providers. Surely you're not saying that as long as you are happy with a company you will consider it to be "generally considered" that everyone is?

I too have PTel, their customer service is top notch, if they don't know how to answer my question or fix a problem I have, they ask to put me on hold and go find someone who can help them with the problem/question.

Sometimes the problem with support is the customer him/her self, I worked for companies that had problem customers, these are the people that you wish would leave us for our competition.

"That's ancedotal" blah blah blah. And so would be the "reports" on that "other web site" blah blah blah. IMO the best customer service is when you do not need customer service. Only had to deal with Ptel CS twice. Once when porting. And second when getting data to work when it went down on my phone. Both times had positive results. So that's more "ancedotal" blah blah blah for you. lol

"reports of problems and subpar CS seem to have grown on that other web site"That's not a fact, of course; it's just your impression. You have not contrary facts to share? No personal experience? Many users on this blog have praised Ptel CS over the years, for both Sprint and Tmobile CS. Do you really expect us to believe that the overseas CS staffs for Ultra, Lycamobile, ST, Net10, Solavei and SImple are likely better? Do you think that Spot CS is likely better than Ptel? I have read lots more complaints about all of these companies' CS, but perhaps your impressions are different.

of course, for me, cannot imagine having two-hour-plus phone calls. but if you do that, then be prepared to hang up at the two-hour mark and call back. the two-hour limitation is most likely to make sure that you don't use up any funds in your account if you are beyond your month's minutes and extra minutes are on a per-minute cost, or if you are doing pay-per-use and not use up all the nickels in your account. so, just hang up and call back again to continue the call later.

"ATTENTION: Our call center is temporarily closed until further notice. If you need assistance, please send us a private message and we'll respond to you as soon as possible. We apologize for the inconvenience and will update you once our call center is back up.Thank you!"

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